Books Worth A Read

• • 

  • View
    Online

Gerald Holton's Science and Anti-Science examines how scientific knowledge is created, defended, and sometimes rejected within modern culture. Drawing on his dual background as a physicist and historian of science, Holton argues that science is not just a method but a deeply human enterprise shaped by historical context, conceptual commitments, and public values. He introduces the idea of scientific themata - foundational assumptions that guide how scientists think and frame problems - and uses case studies of figures like Einstein, Mach, and Bohr to show how these underlying themes influence scientific breakthroughs.

A major thread of the book explores the political and cultural forces that shape scientific authority. Holton highlights episodes such as Thomas Jefferson's debates over federal support for research to illustrate how science has always been entangled with public policy and national priorities.

The book culminates in Holton's analysis of the anti-science phenomenon, a diverse set of movements ranging from creationism to pseudoscience to ideological attacks on scientific institutions. Rather than dismissing these outright, Holton examines why they resonate - often reflecting anxieties about modernity, expertise, and social change.

• • 

  • View
    Online

How do individuals decide whether to accept human causes of climate change, vaccinate their children against childhood diseases, or practice social distancing during a pandemic? Democracies depend on educated citizens who can make informed decisions for the benefit of their health and well-being, as well as their communities, nations, and planet. Understanding key psychological explanations for science denial and doubt can help provide a means for improving scientific literacy and understanding - critically important at a time when denial has become deadly. In Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It, the authors identify the problem and why it matters and offer tools for addressing it.

This book explains both the importance of science education and its limitations, shows how science communicators may inadvertently contribute to the problem, and explains how the internet and social media foster misinformation and disinformation. The authors focus on key psychological constructs such as reasoning biases, social identity, epistemic cognition, and emotions and attitudes that limit or facilitate public understanding of science, and describe solutions for individuals, educators, science communicators, and policy makers. If you have ever wondered why science denial exists, want to know how to understand your own biases and those of others, and would like to address the problem, this book will provide the insights you are seeking.

• • 

  • View
    Online

Michael Mann and Peter Hotez's Science Under Siege reads like a joint dispatch from two scientists who have spent decades on the front lines of humanity's most urgent crises. Mann, a leading climate scientist, and Hotez, a vaccine researcher, trace how the same forces undermining climate action have also fueled resistance to public health measures. Their narrative reveals a shared enemy: a coordinated, politically motivated anti-science movement that distorts evidence, attacks experts, and erodes the public's ability to respond to real-world threats.

The book frames this assault through five powerful forces: plutocrats, pros, petrostates, phonies, and the press - each playing a role in amplifying doubt and manufacturing controversy. Mann and Hotez describe how these actors weaponize misinformation, funnel dark money into influence campaigns, and exploit media ecosystems to sow confusion. The result is a society less capable of confronting pandemics, climate change, and other existential challenges.

Yet the narrative is not purely bleak. Mann and Hotez write with the urgency of scientists who have endured harassment and disinformation but remain committed to public engagement. Their story becomes a call to arms: a roadmap for dismantling anti‑science forces and rebuilding trust so that evidence, not ideology, guides our collective future.